Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) is a worldwide Peace Corps
initiative that seeks to empower women and girls through different conferences
and camps. It is in coordination with Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn”
initiative. In Samoa, Peace Corps volunteers have planned annual GLOW
conferences for the past 4 years and I was lucky enough to be part of year #5!
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| Girls Leading Our World! |
GLOW Samoa 2016 brought together 20 volunteers, about 70 girls
from years 7 and 8, and 22 women counterparts. We came from 22 different
villages spread across 3 islands all to the capitol, Apia, Upolu. For my three
beautiful girls and one counterpart, traveling to Apia meant leaving our island
and going on the ferry. For some, this was the first time ever leaving Savai’i,
which is a huge eye-opening moment! The conference was 4 nights and 5 days. It
was held at Papauta Girl’s College (an all girls boarding school in Apia). This
is a long time to leave your family when you’ve never left home before. I was
so honored to accompany these girls and see the impact of this conference.
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| My Sili girls with the new Miss Samoa! |
Day one was career day. We began by traveling to the Samoa
Observer, our national newspaper. We got to see how the newspapers are printed
and got to hear from several workers about how they got their jobs and what
they do there. It was especially great to hear from the women employees who
work for the newspaper, proving that these girls can get jobs! After our field
trip, we heard from 4 other working women, what they do, and how they got their
jobs. This was a wonderful day for the girls! In Samoa, males hold a lot of
power and it’s easy to think that women cannot get jobs, so it’s extra special
for these girls to hear that they can in fact have a career.
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| Field trip to the national newspaper. |
Day two was health day! We began by taking the girls to hike
Mt. Vaea (where Robert Louis Stevenson is buried). Hiking is a very new thing
for these girls, but those that made it to the top were so happy and proud! We
went from the mountain to the Moanalisa Hotel for a cooking class! Most of
these girls have never been to a hotel either, so it was a very exciting day.
The cooking class was all about fruits and vegetables. The girls were missing
their taro, but happy to help learn and prepare a new meal. After our lunch,
the girls got to swim in the hotel pool! Three girls quickly realized they
couldn’t swim and I was happy that I’m still technically a lifeguard. Other
than that, they had an absolute blast! We came back from the pool to have a
visit from the National Rugby League, and a visit from the Special Olympics. It
was a very active day, to say the least.
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| The Samoan Special Olympics visit! |
Day three was ending violence day. Violence against women is
a major issue in Samoa in particular and this day was dedicated to showing the
girls that it does not need to be “normal”. We heard from many speakers about
human rights and how to get help. The girls also had self-defense class from a
Judo team!! The members who represented Samoa in the Olympics in Rio came and
taught the girls some self-defense moves. It was so much fun! We ended the day
with a visit from students at the National University of Samoa with a
star-weaving project. Australia has put together a project called “A Million
Stars to End Violence” and Samoa has agreed to provide 10,000 of those stars.
It was awesome for these girls to be a part of the project!
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| I'm so proud to be part of this in Samoa. |
Those were our three big days, and the others were dedicated
to traveling/getting to know each other. This was the first time my girls slept
in a building with walls! It was their first time sleeping on a bed and they
actually all moved their mattresses to the floor because they didn’t like it. We
were essentially at summer camp! We stayed up late chatting and playing card
games. It was so wonderful for girls from all different villages to be able to
meet each other. The girls and counterparts were blown away with the fact that
they didn’t have chores to do, so they would diligently clean every building
every morning without being asked to. It was such an incredible experience
bringing my girls out of Sili and they learned more than I could have imagined!
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| Me, Leātivā, Momoli, Melissa, and Meaalofa from Sili! |
I’m sad our week of summer camp is over, but thankful to be
part of such meaningful work here!
